


A Broken King

by bethany81707



Series: Stories of Garreg Mach [16]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Betrayal, Broken Promises, F/M, Flash Fic, Kidnapping, Last words, Regret, Suicidal Thoughts, Trauma, broken pedestal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:08:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22413733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bethany81707/pseuds/bethany81707
Summary: Losing sight of all reason for an extended length of time does bad things to a man's psyche.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Marianne von Edmund
Series: Stories of Garreg Mach [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1552720
Comments: 5
Kudos: 26





	1. Last Hope

Marianne didn’t need her pessimism to tell her she wasn’t supposed to be here. Aside from the fact she had been kidnapped, for want of a better word, Rhea, Catherine and Sylvain had turned their noses up at her as she had passed them. Felix’s hand held her arm tightly, as he pulled her past them and into Fhirdiad’s throne room. In only two years since their last encounter, Dimitri had let himself fall even further in terms of his physical appearance. While his hair wasn’t particularly neat as a student, now it was basically a mop, covering much of his scarred face. The neat uniform of a house leader was dispensed with, replacing it was the rough and rugged Faerghan coat of a king.

“Why have you brought me this?” Dimitri asked, glancing over Marianne. She remembered the Dimitri who danced with her as a student. Back then, his eyes communicated hope and affection. But not now.

“You need something to pull yourself together. Faerghus needs you in better shape,” Felix told him. Marianne considered the man who Felix called ‘boar’. Perhaps Felix was overestimating her ability.

“I do not need a queen. I need revenge. The pleas of those who have fallen, the screams of those who have suffered… nothing less than Edelgard’s head will satisfy me. Surely you could have managed that with the force you used to get me this?” Dimitri asked.

“I brought a token force and used very little violence to make my way through Edmund territory, locate Marianne, and bring her here. She’s concerned about you too, and came willingly. The destruction of Edmund territory wasn’t my doing, and I executed the one responsible before I returned. Killing Edelgard wasn’t going to happen- I was lucky to avoid Hilda as it was,” Felix explained. Marianne felt a pang in her chest. Hilda came for her when she was in trouble. She abandoned her… she had to go back. And yet… Dimitri approached her, holding up her chin to consider her face.

“I desire some time alone with her, if you don’t mind,” Dimitri said.

“Tch. Don’t break her,” Felix scoffed, leaving the room. Marianne had the feeling Felix would remain outside the door until he was challenged or Dimitri proved himself capable of not breaking her. Dimitri’s rough hands came forward, with one running around her body while the other holding her hand. She wasn’t particularly comfortable with the chances of her not being broken.

“...Do you still think of me as lucky?” Marianne asked. Dimitri grunted.

“My revenge is what matters,” Dimitri said. Marianne felt her heart plummet, realising just how bad Dimitri was. She wanted to ask Felix if it was too late to go back to Edmund and ask for Hilda’s company, but odds were it probably was.

“I… I won’t get in your way, Dimitri. Where would you like me to stay while I’m here?” Marianne asked.

“Do as you please. I have no need of someone who will not pick up a weapon and fight alongside me against the cold hearted killer of millions your friends call an ally,” Dimitri snarled.

“Lady Edelgard is not cold hearted! She fights for a better future, a world where Crests no longer dictate the lives of their owners. She’s not like you,” Marianne said. Areadbhar jumped from where it sat and came rushing down on Marianne, stopping hairs away from Marianne’s neck.

“...You didn’t dodge,” Dimitri muttered, after having left the Relic in place for a few moments.

“Why should I? I can’t go back home and I can’t help you. If even you, the only one who ever talked to me because I was interesting, the boy who taught me to feel hope, want to kill me, then maybe I should just die,” Marianne told him.

“...You can’t die, Marianne,” Dimitri said, in a tone that hardly encouraged her to take him at his word.

“And why is that?” Marianne asked.

“Because I don’t want you to haunt me like everyone else is,” Dimitri muttered. Marianne huffed.

“It’s about you, is it? You don’t care about me. You don’t want to listen to me. And you admit that if I die and start whispering in your ear to go throw your life away to kill Edelgard, you would listen then. What kind of king are you?” Marianne asked.

“I may be a bad king, but Edelgard is a worse empress. I would gladly sacrifice myself if I could tear Fodlan from her crimson hands,” Dimitri snarled.

“I’m afraid I’m no help to you there. If you ever want to do something more productive, you’ll know where I am,” Marianne spat, storming from the room. Felix was waiting by the door, as expected.

“If you want to return to Edmund, I think I can arrange that,” Felix told her. Marianne looked back at Dimitri through the gap in the door before it closed, seeing him returned to his throne and sunken again.

“Hilda would tear the Faerghans who escort me back apart. I don’t want to do that to you. I’d rather stay in Fhirdiad and wait for Dimitri to think better of himself,” Marianne said.

“I repeat my offer. I would love to leave Faerghus and support Annette, but I can’t bring myself to turn my back on Dimitri. Please, Marianne, don’t let yourself suffer the same fate. You still have friends who’ll care about you,” Felix insisted.

“...If I can return Dimitri to his senses, perhaps it won’t be one or the other. Perhaps I could have Dimitri and Hilda on the same side, rebuilding Fodlan free from the tyranny of Crests,” Marianne said.

“I’d avoid talking about that tyranny of Crests thing in front of the Seiros faction,” Felix quickly interjected.

“...Felix, what helps you to fight on?” Marianne asked.

“If I must be honest, the idea that the boar will get himself killed before I do. Annette’s beaming face is all that keeps me going,” Felix said.


	2. Lost Hope

Edelgard’s fierce gaze locked with Dimitri’s, the battle raging on around them quietening down. This day was long due, and now there would be no backing down. Tonight, one of them was going to die.

“Must you conquer Faerghus so cruelly? Trample over the lives of innocent civilians to get your way?” Dimitri growled.

“Will crushing Adrestia and Leicester under your own boot satisfy you? Will crushing the innocent lives in our lands prove you have the moral high ground? I have done everything in my power to harm as few of your civilian innocents as the war will allow, but each battle will take its toll. I cannot surrender. I must succeed or die trying. No matter the cost,” Edelgard explained.

“A future built on the graves of the past is not a future worth fighting for!” Dimitri roared, charging forward. Edelgard brought up her fingers, and began her flurry of magical spells. Marianne’s magic offered protection to Dimitri, and she moved closer to enhance the effect. Dimitri focused on heavy swings of Areadbhar to Edelgard’s heavily armoured form, while Edelgard cast defensive magic of her own to blunt their strikes. Lysithea had made sure she learned such spells in anticipation of this day.

“You will pay… your head will hang from the gates of Enbarr as penance for your crimes!” Dimitri roared.

“What, afraid you can’t reach high enough to put it on Fhirdiad’s gate? Have to resort to sticking it on a castle razed to the ground?” Edelgard asked, biting back the fury of him bringing up Enbarr.

“You will suffer as much as I have! You will hear the screams of the people who died in your name! You will know you have failed them!” Dimitri called, raising his lance skyward. Edelgard gave him a solid kick, feeling her heartrate pick up as she did, indeed, start hearing the cries of her siblings for the first time in weeks. Dimitri shook himself from the daze, and brandished his lance beside himself. It took far longer than either combatant cared to admit for the reality of that movement to sink in.

“Di… mi…” Marianne muttered as she fell to the ground, Areadbhar’s wound piercing her side. Edelgard ignored Dimitri and attempted to heal Marianne, only for the reality of her limits to set in. Dimitri shooed her away, and Edelgard nodded, stepping back and allowing Dimitri and Marianne’s final moments together to be between them. She could vaguely make out a few words of Marianne’s quiet deathbed voice, but neglected to piece them together.

“Edelgard…” Dimitri’s voice called at last. Edelgard was shaken from the uncomfortable vision of cradling Lysithea on some faraway field as she let out her last words to turn and face her adversary. The pain reflected in Dimitri’s eye was much greater than it had previously appeared. Edelgard wondered if he would attempt to begin the fight anew, or if he would stick to an alternative plan.

“Edelgard… there is more to Rhea than can be guessed from a glance. Her power is far greater than simply that of the Crests. The White Beasts that Rhea has… made… those are your targets. Let them live, and the Immaculate One’s power will not fade with injury,” Dimitri told her.

“Made?” Edelgard asked. Dimitri’s angry growl at the thought was not like his usual feral growls. It sounded more like Ferdinand when he thought about the Agarthan’s crueller atrocities. It almost felt normal, to hear it out of Dimitri’s mouth.

“The White Beast you fought earlier… the one she made first. That’s Cyril. That was Cyril. The Almyran boy Rhea kept around. Mercedes took care of him back before she joined you. Her second one… that’s Catherine. Cassandra. Thunderstrike. That one. They were loyal to her. They thought the Crest Stone she gave them was a symbol of that pride. But now they are monsters, barely capable of independent thought from their leader. Nothing to her but her links to life,” Dimitri spat. Edelgard looked down at her fists, uncertain whether she wanted to open her mouth in fear of what felt like vomit welling up inside.

“I would never do that to Beth and Lysithea…” Edelgard found herself saying.

“That’s what you meant the whole time, isn’t it? You’ve fought this war all so that Rhea could be stopped,” Dimitri said.

“There’s also the matter of those guys,” Edelgard pointed out, referring to the Agarthan soldiers that could be vaguely made out if one made an effort to look through the raindrops surrounding them. Their habit of possessing human bodies meant even in clear weather, which combatants belonged to the Agarthan faction was not immediately clear.

“I do not fancy being the one to figure out how to defeat them. I wish you luck,” Dimitri said.

“You, wishing me luck? Just what did Marianne ask of you?” Edelgard asked. If annoyance was foreign to Dimitri’s demeanor, brief mirth was even more so. Bernadetta’s first few attempts probably looked less bizarre.

“Marianne chose to follow you because she admired the power to change the world. My power… has been much different. Marianne loved my kind words, but in the end, her loyalty was to your cause. The man I have been was not the man for her. Edelgard… for my last request, I would like you to send the man I should have been to apologise to Father and Marianne,” Dimitri asked.

“You mean you want me to kill you,” Edelgard said. Dimitri bowed his head, and Edelgard drew her axe.

“Say the word,” Edelgard said. This had to be done.

“I’m sorry…” Dimitri started. Edelgard raised her axe, and as soon as it started to fall, Dimitri added one more word to his final thought.

“El.”

Edelgard watched Dimitri’s head drop, his body sinking beside it. He couldn’t have been… could he?

She turned back to base, allowing her tears to fall. This would fall on Lysithea’s ears alone, once she saw her again.


End file.
